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Sabathia, Indians extend Twins' woes

Jun 11, 2008 - 2:37 AM Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- C.C. Sabathia didn't realize how well he was pitching until he retired the last batter and still could see the sun.

Sabathia needed only 106 pitches for his second shutout of the season to lead the Cleveland Indians to 1-0 victory over the skidding Minnesota Twins, on Tuesday night.

After exchanging high-fives and congratulations with his teammates, Sabathia, who is a huge NBA fan, walked off the field to a setting sun when a thought came to him.

"I didn't know what time it was, but I could still see some daylight," he said. "I was like, it must be pretty early, maybe I can catch the Laker game."

Sabathia was efficient, throwing 77 of his pitches for strikes. He scattered five hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out five while even impressing home plate umpire Joe West.

"The home plate umpire said that's the best he's seen (Sabathia) the last two or three years," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Ryan Garko drove in the game's only run with an RBI single in the first inning and Sabathia took it from there in a game that took only 2:06 to play.

"For that run to stand for nine innings, that says a lot about the guy on the mound." Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "He is one of the greatest pitchers in the game today."

Sabathia (4-8) gave up hits to the first two batters of the game, but got out of the jam when Joe Mauer lined to left and Carlos Gomez made a baserunning blunder, getting doubled off second base on Justin Morneau's flyout to left that ended the inning.

That would be the closest the Twins came to scoring against Sabathia, who didn't allow a runner past second base after the first.

"They had two runners in the first, Mauer and Morneau, hit the ball hard and they made a baserunning error," Sabathia said. "From there I just tried to pound the zone and attack them."

The burly lefthander retired the last 17 batters he faced en route to his first win since May 14 - which was also the date of Sabathia's last shutout.

"I don't think about the score," Sabathia said. "I just go out and try to keep us close and hopefully our guys will score some runs. We only scored one tonight, but I was able to keep (Minnesota) at zero."

"C.C. was the story," Gardenhire said. "He shut us down. He used all his pitches. I know what his record is this year, but he's tough. He won the Cy Young last year."

Ben Francisco hit a one-out double off of Scott Baker in the first and Garko drove him in with a single to center.

"You never know when playing the Twins, all our games seem to be pretty low scoring," said Garko. "You have to take advantages of the opportunities when you have them."

Baker (2-1) pitched well in his second start since coming off the disabled list with a strained groin. He scattered eight hits in seven innings while striking out one.

"I didn't feel my stuff was overpowering," Baker said. "I made pitches when I needed to. Overall, I feel it was a pretty good start."

But his effort wasn't enough to stop the Twins' losing streak, which is now at six games.